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Law bloggers and journalists to have roles in Google’s information age

August 18, 2007

Google News Comments BlogsGoogle News is launching a feature that will display reader comments on stories in Google News. Per the Google News Blog, to begin with, comments will only be allowed from “…those people or organizations who were actual participants in the story in question.”

Our long-term vision is that any participant will be able to send in their comments, and we’ll show them next to the articles about the story. Comments will be published in full, without any edits, but marked as ‘comments’ so readers know it’s the individual’s perspective, rather than part of a journalist’s report.

As always, Google News will direct readers to the professionally-written articles and news sources our algorithms have determined are relevant for a topic. From bloggers to mainstream journalists, the journalists who help create the news we read every day occupy a critical place in the information age. But we’re hoping that by adding this feature, we can help enhance the news experience for readers, testing the hypothesis that — whether they’re penguin researchers or presidential candidates– a personal view can sometimes add a whole new dimension to the story.

Looks great to me. Imagine lawyers being able to comment on stories for which the lawyer has more domain expertise than the reporter or those quoted in the story. Not a slam on the reporter or those experts who may be quoted by the reporter, but much more complete information for all.

Some Journalists however are treating Google and features like this as the second coming. A LA Times opinion piece noted: “Many publishers consider the Internet, and Google in particular, a greater threat to their livelihoods than Osama bin Laden.”

But as Jeff Jarvis pointed out, the LA Times piece acknowledged the positive impact of the Google News comments. “News organizations have their flaws, and the added comments on Google may demonstrate that.”

Dave Winer, responding to Google’s announcement and the Times’ piece, may be taking it a little far when he says newspapers should try to host the blogs of those people they cite (don’t want my blog hosted by a newspaper). But I think I get his drift – open source information and if you’re citing me as a reporter, you’ll get my full take. And that’s good for all.

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